Miran McCash on Coaching Runners and Launching a Mobile Running Store in South Seattle

Anandamide. It’s the neurotransmitter that gives us a runner’s high. 

But what leads us to experience a runner’s high, Miran McCash has found, varies for each individual runner. 

“I have one person trying to break three hours, and then I have another person who’s just trying to get through 2 miles,” Miran shares about the athletes she coaches. “I have another person who’s getting back into running. Every day she runs, it’s a celebration.”

Miran started coaching adult runners with Team RunRun in Spokane, Washington, while pursuing a graduate degree in education. Now living in Seattle, she’s entering her fifth year teaching health and physical education at a local high school where she’s also head coach of the track and cross country teams. 

In Seattle, she became more immersed in the local running community and helped launch Club Seattle Runners Division (CSRD). Seeing growth in her coaching business, Miran branched out on her own and launched ANA Run Coaching — the name “ANA” inspired by anandamide.   

After years of building in the running and education spaces and training to run competitively herself, several life events prompted Miran to take a step back and reassess what drives her own runner’s high. 

From Racing to Longevity  

When Miran had her daughter Hayden in 2021, she struggled with postpartum depression and getting back into running. Then, a few years later, a chronic ankle injury that required surgery put her on the sidelines yet again. 

“The whole post ankle surgery has been eye opening. And now that I’m running, it’s been great, but my goals have shifted,” Miran explains.

While she plans to continue running races, Miran isn’t eyeing specific finish times.

“My philosophy of running has changed so much over the years. At first, it was racing — just racing, getting faster,” Miran says. “Now, it’s longevity, and making sure I’m healthy, and making sure it’s fun.”

It was during her ankle recovery when she also became more aligned on the ways she wanted to continue to be involved in the running community. Miran stepped down from CSRD’s leadership team, noting the importance of recognizing when it’s time to turn leadership over to younger runners who better identify with current members. 

With more emphasis placed on running for enjoyment and social connection, it was through chatting with another runner that sparked the idea for a new running business venture. 

Bringing Run Retail Access to South Seattle 

While the South Seattle community is filled with run clubs and races, it lacks a running retail store. Seeking to provide access for their community, Miran and fellow educator Amy DiTommaso bounced around ideas on opening a run specialty shop. 

The two began searching for storefront space and digging into the logistics of bringing in brands to sell. They launched a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe to raise the capital needed to get started. Throughout the process, they realized how difficult and expensive it was to find available space in South Seattle. 

So, Miran and Amy pivoted to a mobile store. 

This summer, they acquired a low-mileage 1989 truck from a fellow small business owner. Already outfitted with wood floors and paneling, they got to work designing the interior of their mobile run retail shop, South End Running Exchange. 

Since the space isn’t large enough to house running shoes, the co-owners decided to start the business with running accessories, apparel, and nutrition. Brands already on the list include Pen and Paces, PYNRS, Sprints, and Pao Labs, and they’re seeking to bring in other women-owned and local businesses. 

South End Running Exchange officially opened for business on September 6, at a collaboration event with Chuck’s Hop Shop Seward Park Run Club, and Miran and Amy plan to regularly park the mobile retail truck at community run club meetups and races. 

“It’s about access for people in South Seattle,” Miran says. “Hopefully, down the road there’ll be a bigger space and community hub that we can have.”

Starting A New Chapter in Running

Returning to school this fall, Miran is taking on a new class in which she can leverage her business experience as owner of ANA Coaching and South End Running Exchange. With so much interest from students in starting their own businesses, the school launched an intro to marketing class as part of its career and technical education, which she’s excited to teach.

A shift to part-time teaching, Miran explains, will help her balance the other priorities on her plate but won’t change her position as head coach. “I’m gonna keep coaching. That was never the question because I love it too much,” she says. 

Below, Miran shares more on how her running has evolved over the years, what she enjoys most about coaching high school runners, and the story behind South End Running Exchange.

Can you share how your philosophy on running has evolved?

Miran McCash: At first, my goal was to just PR every race. I just wanted to get fast. And then, you know, hurdles happen. COVID happened. I had my daughter. It was really hard coming back from postpartum. I had pretty bad postpartum depression, and with all the hormone changes, running was just really hard. That took probably more than two years to finally feel like myself. So then, that’s when I started running again [and] my mind shifted …. I don’t need to race. I don’t need to be fast. I just want to run, and I want to run with people because that’s my biggest enjoyment.

But then I had a chronic injury. I was training for Eugene, and my ankle just started hurting really bad. It was on and off, and then I took some time off. I went to the ankle doctor …. The MRI came back, and he was like, ‘Yeah, you gotta get surgery.’

That was really hard to hear. After having Hayden, I felt like I was starting over again. I mean, I basically started over again …. [Surgery recovery] was a huge learning journey of self discipline, ups and downs, a lot of FOMO. I was sad to not run. I just never showed up to anything because I didn’t want people to see me barely moving, because everyone has known me as the OG runner …. My identity was just all over the place. 

And then starting to run again, I had a really good PT. Actually, I probably couldn’t have done it without him. But it’s been a long process since then, and it’s just opened my eyes to resetting and modifying and changing things as you go, and not feeling guilty if I can’t go out on a run. You’ve gotta take care of your body first. 

What have you enjoyed most about coaching high school cross country and track athletes?

Miran McCash: It’s showing them to love something, and to show them: I will give you the tools and you guys can do it on your own. My first year, it was so hard because they needed me, they’re depending on me to be there to run with them. But now that I’ve been there for so long, I have kids who can take over. 

We’re not allowed to coach before the season officially starts. A bunch of them are running on their own, which is great for me to see because it was like pulling teeth when I first started — getting them to run on their own and just showing more leadership.

I have 50 kids signed up this year. It’s grown from 12 to 50 …. Our program’s starting to get better. It’s a lot of time and investment, but it’s worth it for these kids because it’s something that they look forward to every day. They all hang out outside of school, they’ve made friends, and I just try to make it as fun as possible. 

I just love how they feel like they belong somewhere. That’s my biggest thing is the culture, just creating that culture. I think that’s what gets kids to want to join is they just see how much fun we have and how we’re like a family. 

How did the idea behind South End Running Exchange come together?

Miran McCash: The running community is huge down here. We have Seward Park. We have Lake Washington Boulevard, Renton. There are other cities on the edge of where we are. 

There’s nothing in South Seattle. There literally isn’t any [running store]. We have to drive 20 to 30 minutes to get GU or nutrition, [or] everyone orders it online. There’s so many races down here, and I’m shocked that there’s nothing. But also, there’s not a lot of space. It was really hard to find a space. And it’s Seattle, so it’s really expensive …. That’s why we pivoted to mobile. 

We’re only going to do accessories and nutrition and highlight a brand, but we’re not going to do shoes because of the storage space initially …. We’ll have the trendy running brands, but also the cheaper [ones], like Champion.

We want it to be specialty, but we also want it to be affordable for everyone. We both work at Title I schools, so we see access that is needed with these kids, and…we don’t want that to be a barrier for someone to be able to go out and go on a run or exercise. 

We’ll go to run clubs and we’ll go to races and we’ll go to Seward Park and stuff like that, just start to get out there. And then, hopefully, this becomes something bigger eventually.

Follow @SouthEndRunningExchange and @ANARunCoaching on Instagram. 

“It’s about access for people in South Seattle …. We’ll go to run clubs and we’ll go to races and we’ll go to Seward Park and stuff like that, just start to get out there .... Hopefully, down the road there’ll be a bigger space and community hub that we can have.” — Miran McCash